Reducing debt is one of the major ideas of this IPO: Aster DM Healthcare

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Azad Moopen, Chairman of Aster DM Healthcare spoke about the latest happenings in his company and sector.

Aster DM Healthcare, one of the largest private healthcare service providers, is coming out with its initial public offering (IPO). The issue is scheduled to open today and will close on 15th February.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Azad Moopen, Chairman of Aster DM Healthcare spoke about the latest happenings in his company and sector.

Talking about IPO he said, "We have about Rs 2,600 crore as debt in the book, of which a large part is outside the country and about one-third is in India. So, we are using the large part of the fund being raised coming into the company for the debt retirement, which will significantly reduce our interest cost."

He further added, "Interest is almost double of what we pay in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. For the debt that we have there, it is very low-cost debt. Here it is 9-9.25 percent whereas in GCC, it is less than 4.5 percent including hedging cost. So, we will be significantly reducing the debt. That is one of the major ideas of raising this fund."